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Sunday, 2 September 2007

Luther Burbanks first Canna

Garden and forest. / Volume 9, Issue 432. [June 3, 1896, 221-230]

Correspondence.A New Hybrid Canna.

To the Editor of GARDEN AND FOREST: Sir, - During a recent visit to Santa Rosa, California, I called upon Luther Burbank, and among other things was shown a new hybrid Canna which, when introduced, will probably create as great a sensation as Madame Crozy did. This plant is not a seedling of the well-known strains so deservedly popular, but is a hybrid between Madame Crozy, which has so long been the standard of excellence, and Canna flaccida. Canna flaccida is a native of Florida, of a dwarf habit, and not a strong grower. Its exquisite light yellow flowers would, in spite of these defects, give it a high place in the garden were they not so very ephemeral. So frail and fleeting are they that an hour in the morning often measures their term of existence. I remember well that it was days before I got a sight of the flowers on a blooming plant of my own. The flower of C. flaccida is unique among Cannas in having something of the grace of an Iris and a peculiar silvery sheen that is very beautiful.

For years Mr. Burbank has been trying to make a cross in which some of these fine qualities of Canna flaccida might be united with the vigor and lasting qualities of the Crozy strain, but while many seedlings were grown and bloomed, all, with a pertinacity which is so often the despair of the hybridizer, followed one of the parents, and that Madame Crozy. Last summer, in the third generation of hybridized seedlings, the new seedling appeared, and any one knowing Canna flaccida would have instantly recognized its parentage. Only a single seedling among thousands, yet Mr. Burbank feels that it well repay the trouble. In the new and as yet nameless Canna are united, happily, the Iris-like form, the satiny sheen and the large size of flower of Canna flaccida, while the Crozy blood, giving to the plant a vigor of growth even surpassing either parent, and a lasting quality to the flowers about the same as Crozy possesses, is only apparent in the coloring in a lemon more intense than in flaccida, and a few reddish spots in the throat.

A marked feature of the new race is the development of some of the minor petals which in the Crozy strain are all but rudimentary. In the new Canna they are broad and flat, giving a bold fullness of outline until now quite unknown in Cannas. Considering the predominance of Canna flaccida in this seedling, the most critical point is its keeping qualities. In this regard it is not quite the equal of Crozy. The flower opens up a clear lemon-yellow never before known in Cannas, and is unspotted, except for a few dots well in the throat. With age it becomes lighter in color, and in ordinary weather will last about as long as Madame Crozy, and I think for exhibition it is superior to any other Canna. The foliage is of a light green, the growth a little stronger than that of Madame Crozy, the flowers well carried above the leaves and somewhat larger than those of the Crozy type. The breadth of petal in the new strain is a marked feature which we can expect future hybridizers to still further develop.

What is of particular interest here is that Luther Burbank did not show Purdy his Canna 'Tarrytown', which in Burbanks writings he states was developed at the same time. But, as we also keep many new cultivars to ourselves until we are sure about their worth, I am not at all critical. Burbank welcomed Purdy and gave him access to C. 'Burbank', as the one he describes here was later named, when released officially in 1897.